1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an user interface which displays information regarding a job such as printing, copying, faxing, scanning and the like from a plurality of users and an image forming apparatus including such user interface.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus has been increasingly shared by a plurality of users as an MFP (Multi-Function Product) which is provided every section in a company or connected to the network established in the company to perform scanning, faxing, mailing and the like as well as printing. Each user can register the job such as printing, scanning, faxing and the like in the image forming apparatus directly or through the network. Thus, each user can confirm an execution state of the job that the user registered, to the image forming apparatus directly or through the network, as shown in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2004-94359.
However, since the image forming apparatus connected to the network such as a LAN can be accessed from the outside such as the Internet, confidential documents stored in the image forming apparatus could be accessed through the network. In this case, it becomes important to provide security on the network so as not to leak information of the confidential documents. Thus, it is necessary to ensure the security for the information regarding the job registered in the image forming apparatus which is connected to the network.
As described above, when each user confirms the execution state of the registered job, if information regarding a job registered by another user is displayed together, for example, a confidential document could be taken out by a user who is different from a user who registered its printing information because its printing timing can be seen in the display.
Meanwhile, there is a technique in which management information of a job is appropriately limited according to a confirming person, as shown in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2003-189036.
However, when the job information which has been edited so as to be sorted in execution sequence of the jobs is displayed, for example, since all job information is sorted even if the display is limited, there is a problem in which the execution sequence of the jobs whose display is limited is revealed. As described above, according to the conventional technique, security when the information regarding the registered job is edited and security when the edited information is displayed are not considered.